What are the differences between UI and UX Designing ?
There is no Difference between UI and UX Designing.
Its like comparing Apples and Oranges. They are two completely different things.
Let’s first understand the origination of both terms.
History
User Interface and User Experience are usually used together nowadays. Companies looking to hire designers often put up ;
“Looking for a UI/UX Designer with <number> years of experience”
User Interface is a term which is as old as the computers itself. It is a layout through which humans and machines interact with each other.
User experience on the other hand, is a relatively new term. It was Don Norman who helped coin the term User Experience while working at Apple. User experience goes beyond just the software interface. Its everything including the product, company, services. Even how a particular product is unpacked, comes under User experience as stated by Don Norman in this Interview.
Effects of Confusion
This confusion is already creating a lot of chaos in the market , where companies are ;
- Unable to understand their own needs, companies are hiring UI designers in place of UX designer , which is what they might actually needs for their website.
- Putting up job posts asking for UX designers instead of a Front-End developer, which is what their actual requirement is.
- Hiring UX firms for a requirement of Interface redesigning, where these firms may NOT have the expertise required for a UI redesign.
Clearly, there is a need to understand these terminologies properly, which might be the reason why you are reading this article at first place.
Coming to the point
UI and UX both are ultimately responsible for Designing the product. A product could be anything, an app, a website or even a physical item.
Key responsibilities of a UI designer are creating the Look and Feel, and making sure the product is adaptable to different sizes and stays Interactive.
UX Role is to create strategy, create wire-frames, do a thorough analysis and then deliver.
UI is a sub-set of UX.
Despite having certain predefined roles for a UI designer, UI is majorly a subset of UX. Because how a product looks aesthetically is ultimately responsible for how a User Perceives it as well.
To give you another perspective,
“What is the UX of a product with a crappy UI?”
What it means is, a product has to look good, to feel good.
That’s how UX and UI are related despite being different.
Conclusion
These terms are still getting used interchangeably, and that’s not something that is going to end very soon. Do not assume that your client is using the terms correctly. Analyze it yourself. Even an expert in the field might have different opinions about it. Ultimately, both UI and UX highly depend on your efficiency of understanding.
